AUBURN NOTEBOOK: Todd still the starter, Burns still the backup

Chris Todd will start at quarterback against Vanderbilt.

But Kodi Burns will play, too.

If that sounds familiar, that’s because it’s been Auburn’s plan since the second game of the season. But that plan changed as Auburn got into SEC play, with Todd taking every snap in the Mississippi State and LSU games.

Saturday, however, in the Tigers’ 14-12 win over Tennessee, Burns finally made an appearance in a conference game, taking 25 snaps, including running the offense in the final two series of the win.

Sunday, AU head coach Tommy Tuberville said it was good to see Burns play and make some plays in his backup role.

“Chris will be our starter,” Tuberville said Sunday. “I thought Kodi did good. He played 25 snaps and made some mistakes. He came in and gave us an opportunity to get the fans all excited. He did make some athletic plays. The more he plays the better he’s going to get.

“We need to get him in there. But you’ve got to have a starting quarterback and a backup.”

And those are the roles Todd and Burns will play this week, and maybe the rest of the season, says offensive coordinator Tony Franklin.

“Chris is still the starter,” Franklin said. “And Kodi will play. When, how, whatever, I don’t know. It’ll work itself out somewhere or another.

“We have a starter and we have a backup. If one of them plays better than the other one, he’ll probably stay in.

“Game-to-game, I guess we’ll go with the flow and see what happens. If Kodi comes in and he’s dynamic and does something and needs to stay in, he’ll stay in. We’ll try to move them in and out.”

Burns finished Saturday’s game 4-of-6 passing for 36 yards. Burns also rushed eight times for 21 yards. Todd was 14-for-23 for 93 yards with an interception and a touchdown pass.

Decision to play Burns?
Tony Franklin said Todd’s early performance in Saturday’s win was near perfect.

“The first 28 snaps before Chris came out of the game, he had 27 perfect plays,” Franklin said. “He had 27 snaps that he was perfect — that he did every single thing that I would ask him to do.”

The one bad one? The fumbled snap, which he recovered and handed off to Ben Tate.

But Todd never got to see his 29th play in the first half. With 5:36 to play in the second quarter, Burns came in to play quarterback.

So why pull Todd if he was playing so well?

“Because that was what the head coach wanted to do,” Franklin said. “He wanted to bring him in. We had only scored 7 points — we had scored 7 and the defense had scored 7.”

Tuberville said the decision to put Burns in came from wanting a spark, which the head coach said he talked about with Franklin.

“It was kind of a mutual thing,” Tuberville said. “The second time, I had nothing to do with it. I was talking to the defensive coaches. As the head coach, you have to look at the momentum of a game. You have to try to get the momentum back. I thought that was a good opportunity to change the momentum.”

Burns’ first play from scrimmage was a 14-yard run up the middle. His third play was three-tackle-breaking scramble that ended when he hit Robert Dunn for 9 yards and a first down.

Burns then made another throw to Mario Fannin for 16 yards on a third-and-12 before the drive stalled, with Auburn missing a 35-yard field goal. Burns made, perhaps, the play of the game Saturday, on a third-and-5 with just over two minutes to play in the game.

With Auburn needing a first down to run out the clock, Burns rolled out, and fired a strike to Montez Billings for 10 yards. Game over.

GameDay at Vandy
That’s right. You read it correctly. ESPN College GameDay will broadcast from Nashville, Tenn., this Saturday from 9-11 a.m.

Not only that, but ABC’s main college football crew Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit will broadcast the game at 5 p.m. on ESPN (Channel 28 in Lee County).

“It’ll be a good atmosphere,” Tuberville said. “They’ll be sky-high. They’ve had a week off. This is a huge game for them. They’re ranked for the first time in the Top 25 in I don’t know how many years (24 years).”

Competition for place-kicker
Wes Byrum has missed three consecutive field goals. After missing two against Mississippi State, then not attempting any against LSU, the sophomore place-kicker missed his only attempt Saturday vs. Tennessee.

Byrum’s struggles haven’t gone unnoticed, as Tuberville said Saturday after the game that the miss could have cost the Tigers the game.

Sunday, Tuberville said that Byrum’s job isn’t safe.

“Yeah, we’ll have a competition,” the AU head coach said. “We’ve got to put more pressure on him. We might need to do more live rush — go against scout team — do some things, get some people in front of him.

“Do a little running if he doesn’t make it. Get the whole team involved.”

Byrum, who made two game-winning kicks on the road last season as a true freshman — at Florida and at Arkansas — is 5-for-9 this season, including a career-high 52 yarder against Southern Miss in the second game of the season.

His backup, walk-on Morgan Hull, has never attempted a field goal in his two-year career.

Injury Report
Tuberville said that middle linebacker Tray Blackmon (wrist) will be back this week. Blackmon, the Tigers’ starter at the position, was held out of Saturday’s win over Tennessee.

Running backs Tristan Davis (concussion) and Brad Lester (knee) were also held out as precautionary measures, Tuberville said.

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